Floodlighting temperature problem.

[rocker]

Hello all, long time no see. Hope everyone's well.

I'm quoting for some guy's mansion, basically he wants to all externally lit up from the front, but he doesn't want uplighters or downlighters, he wants floodlights in front of the house to shine onto the walls. Fair enough, but obviously there are a few stipulations to be made:

1. as they are to be simply mounted on a lawn, they mustn't get hot ebnough to burn skin, so your 500w halogen is out.

2. they need to light up a nice big area, from a bit of a distance: I'm not sure if LED or CFL options would have enough output

3: they need to look decent, and I must be able to terminate armoured into them tidily.

Anyone got any ideas? What kind of lamps give a decent light output with a low thermal tremperature? Thanks.

 

[telectrix]

metal halide. get them in 70w,150w and 250w. about £45 apiece. mount on a paving slab.

 

[rocker]

Tidy darts. And they don't get hot?

 

[Richard Burns]

For decent light output at low temperature then LED is your solution but it would not be cheap, you can get some horrendously bright lights in LED if you want.

But Tel is right for maximum convenience and flexibility (so long as they are not frequently switched) use metal halide. You could put a guard round them to avoid touching if this is a problem.

 

[UNG]

As has already been said you can get some serious LED kit these days the only downside tends to be the price but this needs to be factored against the potential of increased lamp life over other types of lighting and also the fittings are generally smaller and therefore a bit more discreet

 

[rocker]

Having a look on the tlc site they have this picture illustrating a 10w led flood. Is this picture an accurate representation of what I am likely to get out of the led flood? If it is, I may go down the LED route after all....

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Images/Products/size_3/GLFL10CWX.JPG

 

[telectrix]

you need at leasdt a 30watt LED to get anywhere near the brightness of a 70watt metal halide.

 

[UNG]

Try Googling " led floodlights case studies " may give you some ideas

Another option may be to borrow some samples and try them to see if they give the lighting levels you are after

 

[Richard Burns]

The TLC site also tells you that the 10W LED is equivalent to a 60W halogen lamp. If you think of the small domestic 120W floodlights you are looking at half that brightness. A 10 W LED would be useful for wall washing, not distant wall illumination at a good level.
That picture is what you would see in a totally dark night with no other light pollution when your eyes have been accustomed to darkness for ages and the light suddenly comes on!

 

[telectrix]

in other words, as much use as a wet fart in a thunderstorm.